INTRODUCTION: Education is an essential component of sport-concussion protocols to improve management and avoid negative consequences associated with participants continuing to play through concussion symptoms. Tailored messaging is an effective way to help change the beliefs of those involved in concussion management. Partnering within government and provincial and national stakeholders, the Concussion Awareness Training Tool (https://cattonline.com/) was developed, which contain a series of evidence-based online educational modules and resources for various audiences including sport, health care, violence, and workplace related concussions. In 2019, partnering with U SPORTS (Canadian university sports-governing body), a new concussion education module with tailored messaging specific to high performance athletes (CATT-A) was created. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of CATT-A among U SPORTS universities in Canada. METHODS: University administrators and athletic therapists/physiotherapists at all 56 U SPORTS affiliated institutions were provided a link to the CATT-A to share with their athletes including a post-course assessment. A convenience sample of athletes assessed the course on 6 domains using a 5-point Likert scale (i.e. overall assessment, learned something new, usefulness, engagement, recommendation for other athletes, and likelihood of returning). Certificate completions and requests for mandatory tracking throughout the evaluation period was observed. RESULTS: A total of 24/56 (42.9%) universities contacted, participated, mandated or shared the tool during the 2020-2021 season. Approximately 1292/5555 athletes who were provided the link to the module, completed the course. In total, 347 athletes completed all the questions in the post course assessment (39.2% male, 59.7% females, 1.2% undisclosed; median (range) age: 19 (17-33)). The majority of athletes rated the course as good or excellent (296/347, 85.30%). In total, 283/347 (81.56%) athletes felt they learned something new, 305/347 (87.90%) felt the course was useful, 226/347 (65.13%) agreed the course was engaging, 258/347 (74.35%) agreed they would recommend the course to other varsity athletes, and 211/347 (60.81%) planned on returning to access content if needed. To date, 21 Canadian U SPORTS universities have implemented the institution email certificate tracking system and there have been over 10,562 certificate completions from 47/56 (84%; median (range): 153 (1-898)) universities. CONCLUSION: Implementation of the CATT-A in Canadian university high performance athletes was very successful, despite the challenges associated with COVID-19. The CATT-A provides freely accessible, engaging and informative concussion information customized for high performance athletes, with the functionality to track certificate completions as part of a concussion protocol. The tool will be promoted nationally and internationally.
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